PlanScope Blog – Page 77
Practical guides to UK planning applications: which reports your council expects, permitted development, constraints, costs and how to prepare each document.
Articles – page 77
9507 articlesWalkthrough: rooftop plant on an office retrofit
Rooftop plant and its screen materially affect external appearance, so permission is almost always needed. This illustrative retrofit turned on a verified view and a week of background noise monitoring.
The householder appeal service and what it does not allow
Householder appeals are fast because they are narrow: twelve weeks to lodge, decided on the papers already before the council, and nothing can be added afterwards.
Decision notices: conditions, informatives and reasons
The permission is the description, the conditions and the drawings those conditions list. The officer report is not part of it, and a superseded drawing revision in the list is a real problem.
Hazardous substances consent or planning permission
A site handling a notifiable substance usually needs both consents. They are granted under different legislation, and a change in control of part of the land can revoke the hazardous substances consent.
Why an officer discounted your objection and what to do
Officers must take representations into account, but only material planning considerations can affect the decision. Most discounted objections fail on that distinction or on missing evidence.
The Housing Delivery Test and the presumption in favour
The Housing Delivery Test produces one number per authority. An action plan is due below 95 per cent, a 20 per cent buffer below 85, and the presumption in favour applies below 75.
Fire evidence for a change of use to flats in a block
A Fire Statement is required at 18 m or seven storeys, and for major development in London. Below that, the fire evidence you supply decides how much design risk you carry into Building Regulations.
Sunlight to balconies and private terraces
There is no published sunlight criterion for balconies. Assessors adapt the ground level two hour test, and the bigger issue is usually the daylight an inset balcony takes from the room behind.
Change of use with no building work: what to submit
No building work does not mean no drawings. The permission defines a use within a planning unit, and only plans can define either, which is why most invalid applications fail here.
Opening a micropub in a former shop unit
Drinking establishments left Class E in 2020, so a shop to micropub conversion needs full planning permission. Customer noise, opening hours and the loss of a local shop decide most applications.
Walkthrough: a Class MA refusal on the old vacancy rule
The three month vacancy condition was removed from Class MA for applications made on or after 5 March 2024. An illustrative refusal under the old rule still shows how to evidence a qualifying period.
Appealing non-determination after the eight weeks expire
The right to appeal non-determination opens when the statutory period expires. Using it takes the application out of the council's hands, including the officer who was about to approve it.
Prior approval: the clock, deemed consent and the risks
Prior approval runs on a hard statutory deadline, and silence from the council can let development begin. The paper trail that silence leaves is rarely good enough for a lender.
Technical approval or a road safety audit stage
Technical approval and road safety audit are separate gates inside a section 278 or section 38 agreement. They have different approvers, different standards and different programme risks.
Permission time limits and what happens when one lapses
A permission that expires cannot be renewed. Keeping one alive means a material operation within the time limit, with every pre-commencement condition already discharged.
Refusal for overdevelopment and internal space standards
A refusal citing overdevelopment is rarely about density alone. It is about unit sizes, single aspect layouts, outlook and amenity space, and only one of those is governed by a published national figure.
Flood resilience condition or Flood Re cover
Flood resilient construction secured by a planning condition and the Flood Re reinsurance scheme are often confused. One limits the damage, the other limits the premium, and a new build in a flood zone usually gets only the first.
Extension of time or refusal and resubmission
An agreed extension keeps the case with the officer who knows it. A refusal and resubmission buys a clean start and a fresh case officer. The right answer depends on what the objection actually is.
Two planning units in one building: how to tell
A shop with a flat above may be one planning unit or two, and the answer changes which permitted development rights exist and whether a change of use needs permission at all.
Walkthrough: an equestrian menage on a paddock
An arena on grazing land is a change of use and an engineering operation at the same time. This illustrative walkthrough follows one through the lighting objection to an approval with conditions.
Outline permission: what to fix and what to reserve
Access, appearance, landscaping, layout and scale can each be reserved, but reserving everything is rarely the least costly route. This sets out which to fix at outline and what the decision costs you later.
Section 106 monitoring fee or an infrastructure contribution
A monitoring fee and an infrastructure contribution both appear in a section 106 agreement and arrive in the same demand. They rest on different powers, meet different tests, and only one of them is capped by the cost of the work.
Objecting when the applicant is the council itself
When the local planning authority is also the applicant, the usual separation between applicant and decision maker disappears. These are the procedures that replace it and the points where an objection carries weight.
The thirty month local plan timetable and what it means
Plan making under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 is meant to run to roughly 30 months with checks during preparation rather than one examination at the end. Here is how the stages fit together.
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